Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo Scanner

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Product Details

Product Manual [4.78mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 17 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004Z3J0
• Item model number: B126111
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Epson Perfection 1640SU photo scanner is a flatbed color image scanner with one-pass scanning. It's fully automatic, allowing you to scan directly to an application with just one touch.

The dual-platform scanner for Mac and PC offers plug-and-play hookup and fast SCSI and USB connectivity. The maximum scan area is 8.5 by 11.7 inches, although you can scan legal-size documents and pictures if using the optional auto document feeder. The optional feeder is a 30-page, 5.5 ppm automatic document feeder. Also, if you need to scan something that doesn't fit under the document cover, the 1640SU allows you to self-adjust the cover. For example, if you need to scan thick documents like a photo album, you simply place the document on the document table glass without having to remove the cover.

The optical resolution of this scanner is 1,600 dpi, while hardware resolution is 1,600 x 2,300 dpi maximum with Micro Step Drive technology. This scanner also offers a true 42-bit color depth.A premium software bundle includes ArcSoft Panorama Maker, Adobe Photoshop, PhotoDeluxe, and Epson TWAIN scanning software.

Also, an optional 4-by-5-inch transparency unit is available for this scanner. With it you can scan positive and negative transparent materials such 35mm slides and filmstrips.

The Epson 1640SU scanner weighs 9.91 pounds and measures 11.4 by 17.4 by 3.78 inches. This product comes with a one-year limited warranty in the United States and Canada. --Linda Anderson

Product Description

The Perfection 1640SU series scanners are ideal for knowledgeable home and small/medium business users who demand high quality with rapid speed and maximum efficiency. Featuring a 1600dpi alternate MatrixCCD with EPSON Micro Step drive for a sub scanning resolution of 3200dpi, the Perfection 1640SU series can capture maximum image detail. The internal and external 42-bit color depth enables the capture of a staggering 440 billion colors and 16, 384 shades of gray ensuring even the most subtle color changes are recognized. Connectivity is simple with the inbuilt USB and SCSI interfaces, giving the choice of a simple plug & play solution, or the high-speed advantages offered by a SCSI connection.The Perfection 1640SU Photo supplied as standard with a 4x5" Transparency unit and slide holders is superb for amateur and professional photographers alike who need to scan negatives and transparencies. Included is a comprehensive software package including Adobe PhotoShop LE 5.0 for professional image editing, Abobe PhotoDeluxe, high level OCR editing with Textbridge Pro, and the EPSON Smart Panel for scanners - enabling the Start button to be customized to user requirements.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epson Photo 1640 SU, March 28, 2001

By	Richard Tulley (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews

The Epson Perfection Photo 1640SU is an excellent scanner. Although a bit more pricey than other home scanners, its resolution is unrivaled for the price. I like the one-button scanning it provides. The setup and software are easy. The automatic scanning modes are wonderful and do a great job, however, I like scanning from the TWAIN software from Photoshop because of the customizability it provides. The photo attachment was really surprising to me in the resolution that it provides. I have scanned 35 mm negatives and enlarged them to 5 x 7 inch prints; these prints look like photographs. I even did an 8x10 inch photo enlargement. The photo looks great on the monitor, however, it took forever to do any manipulations. This was not the fault of the scanner, but rather due to the large size of the file (which was around 700 Mbytes). It ended up crashing my computer. I will stick to 5x7 inch prints or use lower resolution scanning in the future.

I especially like the on-off switch on the front of the scanner; my previous scanner did not have this item. I have scanned many photographs now and have acheived magnificent results. This is a scanner that can do routine jobs but also specialized business-quality scanning. Thank you Epson!

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Professional Scanning Instrument at an Accessible Price, June 10, 2001

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo Scanner

I have an old and trusty Nikon 1000 scanner that has done its duty by me for many years. However, I do a lot of medium and large format work and regret not having a more versatile film scanner. Unfortunately, the big scanners vary in cost from a bit too much to near extortion. Since my flatbed scanner was old and horrible I decided to look into buying one of the better scanners with a transparency head. After a great deal of dithering I settled on the Epson 1640 SU.

Drivers are available for Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and NT 4.0 I installed into my Win 98 machine with minimal effort, using the USB interface. I went from box to up and running in less than a half hour. The transparency head comes in it's own storage case with a set of film holders for standard film sizes (35mm, 120mm and 4x5, and another for doing Epson instant photo prints). It rests on the scanning glass, so it takes all of 5 seconds to install.

Accompanying Epson software includes TWAIN drivers, Smart Panel (an easy scan and save interface), and Film Factory Lite (home photo management software). Also included are Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Photoshop 5.0 LE. Since I have the Adobe profession products on my system I did not load these, but they are accepted standards. I did load Scansoft TextBridge Pro, a very nice optical character recognition package. Also included are some ArcSoft utilities and a special offer for Monaco Systems color matching software. This makes a package deal which is only exceeded by HP's top of the line scanner, which costs almost twice as much and has less scanning power.

I used a negative from my old Hasselblad with a 150mm lens. I scanned the entire negative at 3600 dpi at the 14 bit black and white setting. File size was 98.87mb and it took about 2.25 minutes to scan. I scanned the image directly into Photoshop 6.0. Resolution and image tonal range was excellent, and extreme enlargement showed image breakdown to be very slow. For my kind of work, the digital image was nearly equivalent to a photographic image. I would rate this as excellent, unexpectedly good for a general purpose scanner.

35mm slide scanning is not as good though. The thickness of the slide makes focus a bit softer and there is no holder for slides. I recommend removing the slide from the paper mount and putting it in the 35mm film holder. Then remount the slide in a plastic, reusable mount. Scanning this way, you get an image that is every bit as good as the 120 image. 4x5 scanning is also great, but you need to watch your file size. Use the provided film holders whenever possible. They take a lot of the trickiness out of the process.

The TWAIN interface is a bit complicated. They have taken the liberty of simplifying operation for the photographer or home user who is uncomfortable with scanning technology. This is all well and good, but once you've got your feet wet and are ready to take direct control the interface feels a bit clumsy. Don't get me wrong, you can do just about anything you want at the scanning point, just expect to have to spend a bit of time with the advanced manuals on the CD.

This scanner is perfect for the amateur or professional photographer who has high standards but lacks the budget for exotic equipment. It is extremely well built and easy to use. With its high resolution it should perform satisfactorily for many years to come.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great scanner...well worth it!, August 17, 2001

By	A. Bertsch (Montrose, Pa.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this scanner at the end of May...and have been using it since then with great results -- I scan photos mostly, but have also spent a lot of time recently with slides, many of which I took more than 25 years ago -- Just yesterday, I used the transparency adapter to work with a friend's slides from almost 40 years ago -- I used the 1200 dpi setting, then previewed, cropped, and scanned...after which I printed the results on the Espson 1280 -- My friend was extremely pleased with the prints -- I rarely use the maximum of 3200...mostly I use the 800 or 1200 dpi and never have the results been disappointing -- The setup was easy, the software installed without a hitch, the scanner works relatively quickly and very, I consider, quite professionally --I think it's a great scanner.